Brain injury survivors learn to help themselves

Members of local support group say many more are in need of services

Franklin Albright works on a computer at Goodwill Industries of the Coastal Empire. Albright completed Goodwill?s work rehab program several years ago and now works there cleaning up and erasing the hard drives of donated computers for resale in the thrift store. (Steve Bisson/Savannah Morning News)

Jim Innes concludes many of his business phone calls with a well-rehearsed disclaimer:

"Oh, and just one more thing," he said. "I may not remember who you are or what we talked about the next time we meet or talk."

It's an unapologetic statement of fact.

However, it's a social tool Innes has picked up since he was hit by a car in 1992. Innes spent two months in a coma and months relearning how to walk and talk.

Short-term memory loss is one of the most frustrating symptoms shared by the brain injury survivors who meet once a month at Goodwill Industries of The Coastal Empire.

Like Innes, many members of the support group have survived a moderate to severe head injury. Many spent weeks or even months comatose, endured months of physical and cognitive rehabilitation and watched their careers and relationships change dramatically in their post-injury lives.

"There's anger there, because they can't figure out why they can't do things like they could before," said Lorraine Koenn, a support group member since the early-1990s.

"We share things with each other. We say, 'This is how we do it,' " she said.

"We're like a family to each other."

A need for services

About 3,000 people a year end up in a Chatham County hospital with a traumatic brain injury, according to data made available by the Brain and Spinal Injury Trust Fund Commission.

About 40 percent were caused by falls. Another 22 percent were caused by motor vehicle accidents and 18 percent were caused by a strike to the head not involving a vehicle.

According to the Brain Injury Association of America, there are nearly seven times more incidences of traumatic brain injury each year than diagnoses of breast cancer and HIV/AIDS combined.

Many of the 17 percent of those who must be hospitalized for a brain injury describe their lives changing in both subtle and dramatic ways.

Innes leads the monthly support group for people with brain injuries. The group has met at various locations since the mid-1980s and includes both survivors and their families.

Some of the participants are graduates of Goodwill's ADVANCE program, formerly known as Second Chance. The program works to help people recovering from a brain injury with cognitive retraining and literacy, as well as the development of skills to hold a job and live on their own.

The ADVANCE program serves as another rehabilitation tool along with medical treatment, physical therapy and advocacy.

"We consider ourselves coaches, guides and supporters through the process," said Bill Oakley, executive director of Goodwill. "We're all about helping people toward independence as much as possible."

With more than $17 million in 2008 revenue, Goodwill of The Coastal Empire provided employment, vocational training or vocational evaluations to more than 900 people with disabilities and other barriers to employment, according to the agency's 2008 financial report.

The agency and the Savannah Association of the Blind both receive funding from the Georgia Department of Labor's Vocational Rehabilitation Program to provide vocational retraining to people with disabilities.

But the demand for brain injury support services overshadows the supply, says Craig Young, executive director of the Brain and Spinal Injury Trust Fund Commission.

Funded by a surcharge on drunken-driving fines, the government program has distributed more than $7 million to more than 2,000 Georgians with brain or spinal injuries since 2002 to help them maintain independence.

"There's not a continuum of services for people (with traumatic brain injury) when they leave the hospital," Young said. "If your private insurance doesn't provide for cognitive therapy, who's going to pay for that?"

Young counts Goodwill among a small number of nonprofit programs that offer much-needed services for people with brain injuries.

"We just need more of them," Young said.

Rethinking help

George Maust spent four months in a coma and nine months in rehabilitation after a car accident in 1983.

"When I came out of the coma, my memory was a good 20 years behind," said the former office manager for Georgia Pacific. "I could remember things back when I was in high school. My problem is with short-term memory."

Maust received job training at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation. The program gave him enough skills to go back to work for his former employer. He worked part-time in various office support jobs until he retired about two years ago.

Through it all, Maust said there's been no replacement for a good support group.

"You have therapists and all that - which is good, definitely - but they don't know the basic one-two-threes that all of us go through," he said.

Innes suspects there are others in the area, whose lives changed after their head injury, who could benefit from the support group at Goodwill.

"I know some people who have had a traumatic brain injury - they've been unconscious for a while, a day, a week, a month - they won't talk about it," said Innes, 40, who was in a coma two months after being hit by a car in 1992.

"They won't go to a meeting, but they also don't hold down jobs either. There's a lot of people who have denial that anything has affected them."